Volunteers spread down the road looking for frogs and salamanders to help across the road.

Kent McFarland
/ Vermont Center For Ecostudies

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This month, Outdoor Radio takes you to Salisbury, Vermont where salamanders, newts and frogs are crossing Morgan Road to a swamp where they reproduce. Dozens of volunteers are keeping a tally, and when a car comes along, the volunteers scoop them up so they don't get squashed.

"It's an early sign of life in the Spring. It's a major wildlife spectacle that many people have overlooked." — Herpetologist Jim Andrews

Biologists Kent McFarland and Sara Zahendra are joined by Herpetologist Jim Andrews as the volunteers work with clipboards and flashlights to participate in this rite of Spring.

Over the course of two and a half hours, 44 volunteers counted 512 amphibians.

For more information about amphibian migrations in Vermont, check out these sites:

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In this episode of Outdoor Radio, biologists Sara Zahendra and Kent McFarland of the Vermont Center for Ecostudies are in Plainfield at the foot of a disease-resistant elm. Scientists are taking branch clippings from 60 feet up to pair the buds with other resistant trees.